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Why Washington said no to CBI

Washington officials have said for weeks they weren’t interested in pursuing a bid from the College Basketball Invitational. Their reasons were rather vague, but maybe finances played a role in their decision making.

According to a story in the Oregonian, Oregon State will pay $35,000 to host a first-round CBI game. If the Beavers win, they’d have to pay $50,000 to host a quarterfinal. A semifinal game in the best of three-championship format cost $75,000. All told, Oregon State could spend $235,000 on CBI games.

You could argue a quarter of a million is pittance for a team like Washington that reported $6.3 million in basketball expenses in 2012. But why spend the money if UW players aren’t interested in the tournament?

On his Monday night radio show, coach Lorenzo Romar said the Huskies had pinned their hopes on getting in the National Invitation Tournament and when that didn’t happen, they declined overtures from the CBI.